Right to life is concerned that this UN Committee continues to unlawfully pressurise the New Zealand government and other governments to decriminalise abortion. It is abhorrent that the CEDAW Committee has hijacked the Convention for the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women. The ultimate discrimination of women is to be violently killed before birth in their mother’s womb.

Jan Logie, the Under Secretary for Justice led the government delegation at the 8th Periodic Review by the CEDAW Committee at Geneva on 12 July 2018. Members representing NGOs, the New Zealand Family Planning Association and the Abortion Law Reform Association NZ also attended the Review and made a joint submission supporting the decriminalisation of abortion.

It is disappointing that the government colludes with the UN Committees in hijacking the Convention in support of the government’s determination to decriminalise abortion in New Zealand. Right to Life fully supports the Convention as originally drafted and signed by the New Zealand government in 1980.The UN Committee unlawfully continues to interpret Article 12 of the Convention to include abortion as part of family planning services, contrary to the intentions of the General Assembly that has repeatedly rejected abortion as part of family planning services.

Clearly, the intent of Article 12 was to protect women, especially during or after pregnancy or lactation, by ensuring adequate health care to protect mother and child. Nowhere in Article 12 or in any other provision of CEDAW is there a so called “right” to abortion or abortifacients. “Family planning” and “health care services” are mentioned, but not abortion. Right to Life requests that the government cease using the unlawful interpretation of the CEDAW Convention to promote discrimination against women through its proposal to decriminalise the killing of the unborn and to make abortion a health issue of choice for women. The government should uphold the Convention by opposing the ultimate discrimination of women, the killing of women before birth.

Right to Life wholeheartedly congratulates the Accident Compensation Corporation [ACC] for recognising the urgent need for promoting abstinence based sexuality education for our children. The arrival of the ACC hopefully signals the departure of the ubiquitous Family Planning Association with its unhealthy destructive plans for our children and families. Right to Life looks forward to the introduction of the pilot programme, “healthy relationship” designed to reduce sexual violence.

The ACC recognises that comprehensive sex education programmes produced by the Family Planning Association [FPA] are seducing our children into being promiscuous and even sexually violent. The programmes are not only damaging the morality of our children but are also costing the country millions. Last year the ACC dealt with 4,800 sexual violence claims and spent $44 million treating the victims. The sexual freedom promoted by the NZFPA comes at a great cost, for our children, teenagers and for the taxpayer.

It should be recognised that Family Planning is a business and its business is selling sex.

The New Zealand Family Planning Association[FPA] in its submission to the United Nations Human Rights Council had the breath-taking audacity to accuse the New Zealand government of violating the human rights of women and girls living in New Zealand. The UN Council was meeting in February to review the performance of the government in its upholding human rights. Right to Life believes that the FPA is itself guilty of supporting serious human rights violations.

The UN accusations are very serious ones; they are an affront to our nation. The main accusation is that the government has not decriminalised abortion to allow for abortion on demand for the whole of pregnancy, for any reason, or no reason. The FPA claims to represent the women of New Zealand at the United Nations and to be the champion of the human rights of women. How dare they, this is challenged; the ideology of the FPA is alien to that held by the fast majority of New Zealand women.

Who then has appointed the FPA to fill this role? Nobody, they have appointed themselves. FPA is a business; its business is selling sex, and its objective is to encourage as many people as possible to be sexually active. Its marketing strategy is to seduce our children and to increase its client base by infiltrating schools with comprehensive sex education programmes that threaten the morals and health of our children. Family Planning claim that they promote choice; this is a charade, for they are opposed to schools consulting with parents to seek approval for the use of sex education programmes in school. They are also opposed to parents having the right to withdraw their children from these offensive programmes. The FPA does not accept that parents are the first educators of their children, for the FPA believes that they are.

Thank you for your letter of 13 October 2013. In response to our question 6, which read;

May women having an abortion at the Tauranga clinic take the prostaglandin, Misoprostol in their own home as is the common practise in Britain? You replied.

“As answered above at number 5, the Act provides that for abortions to be lawful they must be carried out at licensed institutions, Advice received by the Committee provides that the second dose of prostaglandin which is usually given solely for purpose of controlling bleeding post-procedure may be taken outside of the licensed premise.”

The literature on medical abortion informs us, that few abortions conclude with the expulsion of the human embryo occur after the use of Mifepristone only. The majority of abortions conclude with the expulsion of the human embryo only after the use of the prostaglandin, Misoprostol.

The anecdotal evidence we have received from members of the community in Tauranga is that Misoprostol is being given by staff at the Family Planning clinic in Tauranga, to all women undergoing a medical abortion at that facility to take home and self administer. We are aware that Misoprostol is used extensively overseas to stop post-partum bleeding.

Our Society has sought an opinion on this important issue from our counsel Peter McKenzie CNZM, QC. It is his opinion, that the practice of the staff to provide Misoprostol to women, undergoing a medical abortion to administer at their home, is unlawful in terms of the judgment of Justice Durie. To assist you I have enclosed a copy of our counsel’s opinion. (Note NOT ATTACHED IN THIS WEB POST)

Our Society is concerned that patients undergoing a medical abortion, may experience adverse events, that range in severity from complications that are serious but not life-threatening, to those that can lead to hospitalisation and death.

This matter raises several important questions:

Does your Committee agree with the opinion of our counsel that it is unlawful for the abortion provider, the New Zealand Family Planning Association to give Misoprostol to women at its Tauranga clinic while undergoing a medical abortion, for them to administer Misoprostol in their home?

If so, what action will your Committee take to ensure that the abortion law is adhered to?

Under the Official Information Act, what are the names of other abortion providers, if any, who are providing Misoprostol to women undergoing a medical abortion for the purpose self administering in their own home?

In view of the serious nature of this issue I would be grateful if you would provide an urgent response to the above questions?

The New Zealand Family Planning Association is an affiliate of the International Planned Parenthood Federation [IPPF]. The Federation is at the forefront of promoting a worldwide culture of death with contraception, sterilisation and abortion. Family Planning is both the enemy of the unborn and of women. Family Planning is also the enemy of the family. It is imperative that Family Planning is exposed for the great damage it is inflicting on our society. New Zealand it is time to wake up!

It (NZFPA), wants five year olds to know what a condom is. We are now depriving very young children of their innocence and initiating them into the web of sexualisation that permeates our society.

Family Planning proclaims that they support the right of women to choose. This is a lie. The China Family Planning Association is a member of the IPPF. The IPPF supports China’s one child family planning policy with forced abortions, sterilisations and imprisonment for those who dare violate this policy. The IPPF website supports the one child policy. The IPPF is thus complicit in the massive human rights abuses inflicted on the Chinese people.

Convention for the Elimination of All Discrimination against Women [CEDAW]

Right to Life is concerned that the New Zealand Family Planning Association continues to act in the belief that Article 12 of CEDAW includes a “human right” to abortion.

Article 12 states, “ Parties shall take all appropriate measures to eliminate discrimination against women in the field of health care to ensure on a basis of equality of men and women access to health care service, including those related to family planning.”

New Zealand is a signatory to this Convention, having signed on 20 December 1984.

It is our understanding, that it was the intention of the General Assembly on 18 December 1979, in adopting this Convention, that it was the intention of member States to exclude abortion as a part of family planning.

I wish to lodge a formal complaint against the interview of Amelia Langford of Jacob Daube and Dr Christine Roke of the New Zealand Family Planning Association. Also included was Suzanne Ehlers, the President, and CEO of Population Action International. The interview was aired on Monday morning, the 3 November, 2013, on the Dateline Pacific programme. My complaint is that the interview breached Principle [d] of the Code of Practice for free to air radio. The principle that when controversial issues of public importance are discussed, reasonable efforts are made or reasonable opportunities are given, to present significant points of view, either in the same programme or in other programmes within the period of current interest.

The programme featured members of the international population control movement and their intention to change the culture in Kiribati to accept contraception and abortion. It is readily acknowledged that Kiribati has a serious demographic problem that is however not going to be solved with contraception, sterilisation and abortion. It is contended that with contraception Family Planning and its allies are exerting pressure on the government to decriminalise abortion to be available as a backup for so called failed contraceptives.

The Hawkes Bay District Health Board is providing teenagers as young as 12 with free condoms with the objective of reducing teenage pregnancies and abortions. The scheme has not yet been evaluated and may be introduced nationally. New Zealand has one of the highest rates of teenage pregnancies in the Western world. There were 6,000 teenagers who were pregnant in 2012. This is a very serious social problem. The Abortion Supervisory Committee reported to Parliament in its 2012 report, that 4,470 women who had an abortion in 2011 were relying on condoms at the time of the conception of their unborn child.

This program is not only morally bankrupt, but is the end point of a society that instead of promoting policies that seek to protect teenagers from the harm that accompanies early sexual contact it actually promotes that harmful behaviour. Let’s look at what is happening. The State, with the encouragement of Family Planning is giving teenagers the false message that it is acceptable for them engage in sexual intercourse with who ever they like. It is a green light for them saying in effect ‘It is your right to choose to be promiscuous and your parents have no right to know and you don’t need their consent’. This is simply politically correct social insanity.

A small pro-abortion group is delighted that its complaint against full page adverts placed in the Bay News and Bay of Plenty Times have been upheld by the Advertising Standards Authority [ASA]. They accused the advertiser of lying. The adverts were placed by Voice for Life in Tauranga. The adverts followed the introduction of the killing of children in their first nine weeks of life at The Family Planning’s clinic in Tauranga in April this year. The adverts were a community service and provided information about the tragic deaths of women overseas and the serious complications resulting from abortions with RU 486.

The adverts also named the forty ministers and priests in the Tauranga area who would provide unconditional love and support to women with an unplanned pregnancy. The Advertising Standards Authority has accepted the complaint that the advert contained ‘lies’. The Authority also accepted that the advertisements were prepared in “a socially irresponsible manner” as it “grossly”misrepresented medical facts about the risks and effects of abortion. The complainant also said the advertisement employed fear in order to deter women from undergoing an abortion with RU 486. The accusations are simply not true.

I wish to lodge a formal complaint against the interview of Cecile Richards, President of Planned Parenthood Federation of America. The interview was aired at 8 am on Saturday 2 November 2013 on the Saturday Morning programme. My complaint is that the interview breached Principle [d] of the Code of Practice for free to air radio. The principle that when controversial issues of public importance are discussed, reasonable efforts are made or reasonable opportunities are given, to present significant points of view, either in the same programme or in other programmes within the period of current interest.